All about the Common Cold

I was busy last month compiling information about the common cold. Nearly half of all colds are caused by rhinoviruses, a type of picornavirus. Here's where you can find more information:

The Spread of the Common Cold - How rhinovirus spreads and infects us

Signs and Symptoms of Rhinovirus Infection - What we know as the common cold

Zinc and the Common Cold - Evidence for preventing rhinovirus infection

Common Picornavirus Infections - other illnesses caused by viruses similar to rhinovirus

Interesting History at Your Fingertips

There have been two interesting releases into the history of science and medicine in recent months.

1) The National Library of Medicine has released scans of some of the most beautifully illustrated science books - You can literally "turn the pages". Once only available by visiting the Library, you can now check it out at home.

There are only a few books, but they include Robert Hooke's Micrographia, one of the first descriptions of microbes; Vesalius's book on human anatomy, with some of the first drawings of physiological mechanisms and associations; and other medical texts from the 1400s and 1500s!

Medieval medicine in its artistic glory. The very foundations of everything we know about the human body, laid to bare in those pages.

If you don't want to flip through the books, they offer galleries of the images in them as well.

2) To celebrate 350 years, the Royal Society of London has published 60 of its most trailblazing papers online. They include the 1667 descriptions of blood transfusion and artifical respiration, the original paper on smallpox inoculation, the discovery of aspirin (originally dried willow bark from which acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized 130+ years later), Benjamin Franklin's kite flying experiment, and many more very interesting scientific accomplishments.

The PDFs are free to download and browse, and they even provide some historical perspective. Stop by the Royal Society's Trailblazing site.

World AIDS Day

December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day to focus on awareness regarding education, prevention, and testing to prevent further spread of a fully preventable disease. Despite this, AIDS has killed tens of millions of people in nearly three decades and there are millions more living with HIV.

A snapshot of the struggle against AIDS can be gleaned from what we know and how we learned it. Stop by my Squidoo lens on HIV/AIDS or my Helium Zone featuring current articles on HIV/AIDS from the writing site.

Swine Flu Updates

Stay up-to-date with H1N1 updates via the CDC

The virus is spreading on college campuses and new information has come forth that the infection is contagious for a week after symptoms begin. The vaccine is not yet ready, but they are predicting that a single injection will be used in the U.S. when it is. In the meantime, seasonal flu vaccine is available. Check with your local pharmacy or immunization clinic to find out where and when you can obtain one.

Read the Healthcare bill

The Health care bill being debated by members of the House of Representatives is available here.

There is a lot of misinformation floating around about it. Now you can read it for yourself. Save a copy on your desktop and use the search function of your PDF reader to find words that matter to you.

Answers about Vaccines

There are many reasons for vaccinating, the most important of which is to prevent disease. Some of the diseases previously held at bay by immunization programs are coming back into developed nations. Click the link above for further explanation.

Read more about vaccine safety at the CDC website, including recommended schedules for receiving vaccinations.

To follow outbreaks, see ProMED_mail on Twitter, they link to news alerts and articles. Current alerts include Measles in New Zealand. Previous outbreaks have included Measles in the UK and U.S., H1N1 influenza, and plague (yersinia pestis).

Follow me on twitter

I have started a Twitter feed for this blog, which will include smaller snippets and links to news stories, hopefully expanding the information I can share and provide.

I will still be posting here, though I haven't been good at keeping up with it. I am planning a complete overhaul of the website, but have been having FTP issues with the webhost.

I will keep you updated.